Flight Dynamics Flightsail VII

__NOTOC__ Infobox Aircraft
name=Flightsail VII


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type=Recreational amphibian
manufacturer=Homebuilt
designer=Tom Purcell
first flight=October avyear|1970
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variants with their own articles=The Flight Dynamics Flightsail VII was a recreational aircraft marketed in the United States in the 1970s for homebuilding, most unusual both in its design and its method of construction. The Flightsail was intended to be built in three stages, with each stage representing a flyable aircraft of increasing complexity, capability, and cost. It was hoped that this approach would appeal to homebuilders by minimising the amount of time and money required to take the aircraft to a point where it could be flown.

The core of the Flightsail was a pod-and-boom style fuselage, the pod component of which was in the form of a thick airfoil with integral sponsons at its bottom to aid stability in water. This fuselage could be fitted with flexible, hang-glider-like wings and be flown by having it towed aloft by a speedboat. It could either be left as such and operated in this form (known as a Seasprite) or serve as "Stage I" for the Flightsail.

In "Stage II", the builder would add a powerplant to the aircraft, mounted in a nacelle set on struts above the fuselage pod while retaining the flexible wing. In "Stage III", the flexible wing would be replaced by a conventional, strut-braced monoplane wing mounted high on the fuselage.

pecifications (Flightsail VII)

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crew=One pilot
capacity=1 passenger
length m=7.62
length ft=25
length in=0
span m=11.89
span ft=39
span in=0
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width m=
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height m=2.68
height ft=8
height in=10
wing area sqm=18.1
wing area sqft=195
swept area sqm=
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volume m3=
volume ft3=
aspect ratio=
empty weight kg=544
empty weight lb=1,200
gross weight kg=771
gross weight lb=1,700
lift kg=
lift lb=

eng1 number=1
eng1 type=Continental C90
eng1 kw= 67
eng1 hp= 90
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max speed kmh=153
max speed mph=95
max speed mach=
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cruise speed mph=
range km=482
range miles=300
endurance h=
endurance min=
ceiling m=3,660
ceiling ft=12,000
glide ratio=
climb rate ms=2.5
climb rate ftmin=500
sink rate ms=
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References

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